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Muzzi JCD, Magno JM, Souza JS, Alvarenga LM, de Moura JF, Figueiredo BC, Castro MAA. Comprehensive Characterization of the Regulatory Landscape of Adrenocortical Carcinoma: Novel Transcription Factors and Targets Associated with Prognosis. Cancers (Basel) 2022; 14:5279. [PMID: 36358698 PMCID: PMC9657296 DOI: 10.3390/cancers14215279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
We reconstructed a transcriptional regulatory network for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) using transcriptomic and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-ACC cohort. We investigated the association of transcriptional regulatory units (regulons) with overall survival, molecular phenotypes, and immune signatures. We annotated the ACC regulons with cancer hallmarks and assessed single sample regulon activities in the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors (ENSAT) cohort. We found 369 regulons associated with overall survival and subdivided them into four clusters: RC1 and RC2, associated with good prognosis, and RC3 and RC4, associated with worse outcomes. The RC1 and RC3 regulons were highly correlated with the 'Steroid Phenotype,' while the RC2 and RC4 regulons were highly correlated with a molecular proliferation signature. We selected two regulons, NR5A1 (steroidogenic factor 1, SF-1) and CENPA (Centromeric Protein A), that were consistently associated with overall survival for further downstream analyses. The CENPA regulon was the primary regulator of MKI-67 (a marker of proliferation KI-67), while the NR5A1 regulon is a well-described transcription factor (TF) in ACC tumorigenesis. We also found that the ZBTB4 (Zinc finger and BTB domain-containing protein 4) regulon, which is negatively associated with CENPA in our transcriptional regulatory network, is also a druggable anti-tumorigenic TF. We anticipate that the ACC regulons may be used as a reference for further investigations concerning the complex molecular interactions in ACC tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- João C. D. Muzzi
- Laboratório de Imunoquímica (LIMQ), Pós-Graduação em Microbiologia, Parasitologia e Patologia, Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81530-990, Brazil
- Laboratório de Bioinformática e Biologia de Sistemas, Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81520-260, Brazil
- Oncology Division, Instituto de Pesquisa Pelé Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba 80250-060, Brazil
| | - Jéssica M. Magno
- Laboratório de Bioinformática e Biologia de Sistemas, Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81520-260, Brazil
- Oncology Division, Instituto de Pesquisa Pelé Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba 80250-060, Brazil
| | - Jean S. Souza
- Oncology Division, Instituto de Pesquisa Pelé Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba 80250-060, Brazil
| | - Larissa M. Alvarenga
- Laboratório de Imunoquímica (LIMQ), Pós-Graduação em Microbiologia, Parasitologia e Patologia, Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81530-990, Brazil
| | - Juliana F. de Moura
- Laboratório de Imunoquímica (LIMQ), Pós-Graduação em Microbiologia, Parasitologia e Patologia, Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81530-990, Brazil
| | - Bonald C. Figueiredo
- Oncology Division, Instituto de Pesquisa Pelé Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba 80250-060, Brazil
- Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Centro de Genética Molecular e Pesquisa do Câncer em Crianças (CEGEMPAC), Curitiba 80030-110, Brazil
| | - Mauro A. A. Castro
- Laboratório de Bioinformática e Biologia de Sistemas, Pós-Graduação em Bioinformática, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba 81520-260, Brazil
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